Con Coughlin is the Telegraph's Defence Editor and a world-renowned expert on global security and terrorism issues. He is the author of several critically acclaimed books. His new book, Churchill's First War: Young Winston and the fight against the Taliban, is published by Macmillan in London and Thomas Dunne Books in New York. He appears regularly on radio and television in Britain and America.

Soldiers deserve bonuses as much as civil servants

There is something deeply wrong at the heart of our government if we can find the funds to reward MOD civil servants for performing their jobs to a satisfactory level, but not doing the same for the thousands of soldiers, sailors and airmen who daily risk their lives in defence of the realm.

I personally have no objection to civil servants receiving bonuses for hitting their performance targets, although I can see why there has been an outcry over the scale of the awards paid out at the MOD so far this year given the mess the department has made of getting the right equipment to our troops at the right time in the three years since our forces deployed to Helmand in 2006. Then there is the tricky issue of the billions of pounds that have been wasted because of the MOD's highly inefficient procurement system.

But what concerns me more is the inherent unfairness of rewarding one group of employees and not another. Many of our young soldiers – the ones who have to go eyeball to eyeball with the Taliban – earn less than a traffic warden, as General Sir Richard Dannatt, the recently retired head of the British Army, pointed out.

And if they are unfortunate enough to get horribly maimed by a roadside bomb, they then find their civilian counterparts in the MOD challenging how much compensation they should receive for having their lives ruined in the service of their country.

If we can pay bonuses to the civil servants, then we should do the same for all our brave service men and women who risk their lives to defend our freedom and security.

Now that would be a popular election pledge for one of our political parties come the general election.